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2018 MacBook Pro randomly losing WiFi connection

My month-old Mac has randomly started dropping my WiFi connection without any notification. One moment it's working fine, the next I'm offline. According to the WiFi dropdown in the menubar, my machine is behaving as if I had clicked to disconnect from the network; WiFi is on but not connected, all networks that should be in the list of nearby networks are there, and clicking on my network connects back up in under a second and I'm back to working again online... until it drops again anywhere from ten minutes to a few hours later.

This issue started almost immediately after installing "macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Supplemental Update 2 for MacBook Pro (2018)" from the Mac App Store and is affecting me on any WiFi network I connect to now if I'm connected long enough. It's usually just a minor inconvenience, but if it went down at just the wrong time it could cause serious issues with what I use it for. My 2011 MacBook Pro, also running macOS 10.13.6 but without the update specific to the 2018 model, doesn't have this issue... nor does any other device in the house, including a 2014 MacBook Pro, two 2007 MacBooks, and a 2009 iMac which are also all on the latest versions of macOS that they support. (Same for all the iPhones, iPads, and Apple TVs in the home) It looks like this bug is reserved for those with the latest and greatest portable Macs, so I'm out of luck until a fix comes around.


Does anyone have any ideas as to what may be causing this? I'm pretty sure it's an issue with the recent update; my Mac doesn't have a whole lot on it yet besides Apple apps and Adobe Creative Cloud software, and I don't browse anywhere or download anything from anywhere that could have given me anything unpleasant on my system. I basically treat this thing like a baby, so there seriously shouldn't be any issues with it already. My MacBook Pro and AirPort Extreme are both on the latest software version they have available, and I've troubleshooted both devices.

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018), macOS High Sierra (10.13.6), TimBook Pro

Posted on Sep 10, 2018 10:37 PM

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239 replies

May 17, 2019 10:01 AM in response to TimsTech

I was the one who suggested that the problem could be related to either the Apple Watch (with the "Allow your Apple Watch to unlock you Mac" feature enabled on a Mac or to the Apple TV's AWDL (Apple Wireless Direct Link) feature enabled that allows one to Airplay directly to the Apple TV without being on the same Wi-Fi as the Apple TV.


Initially, I had the issue with the Wi-Fi icon going gray and losing the Wi-Fi connection on the 2018 MacBook Air when I bought the MacBook Air in December of 2018. My Wi-Fi is used on Ubiquiti UniFi APs. A few UniFi firmware upgrades later (some time in January 2019), the issue changed from the Wi-Fi icon going gray (and requiring a manual intervention to connect to Wi-Fi) to Wi-Fi icon staying the same (showing connected) but having a sudden loss of IP connectivity. Yet a few moreUniFi firmware upgrades later, the "sudden loss of IP connectivity" issue was resolved, but what remained was a gradual degradation of Wi-Fi access rates with the Tx rate dropping to as low as 13 Mbps and staying that low. This affected the Wi-Fi throughput dramatically, which was proven by running iPerf tests.


After my hunch that the issue could be related to the "Allow your Apple Watch to unlock you Mac" feature enabled on a Mac, I continued to use this feature even though others reported that turning off this feature fixed their issues. I continued to experience the gradual degradation of Wi-Fi access rates for months, but finally, about a month ago, I decided to turn the "Allow your Apple Watch to unlock you Mac" feature off on the 2018 MacBook Air. Since I did so, I haven't noticed any issues at all with the Wi-Fi connectivity, and neither do my Wi-Fi access rates degrade anymore on the 2018 MacBook Air.


Because I consistently had all the Wi-Fi issues described above, and especially because the Wi-F access rates consistently degraded and caused issues for my work, I can attest that turning off the "Allow your Apple Watch to unlock you Mac" feature at least fixes the issue with the degraded Wi-Fi access rates. As for other problems, such as the Wi-Fi icon going gray, this is probably a different issue (which may or may not be related to the Wi-F access rates degrading), and I think that issue is caused by some sort of incompatibility in the behavior of the latest Macs and some Wi-Fi routers/access points or the firmware running on them. So, I would recommend first upgrading the firmware on the Wi-Fi router / access point, and if that doesn't help, trying a different Wi-Fi router or access point. I can attest that with the latest stable firmware releases from Ubiquiti, UniFi access points, such as UAP-AC-HD and UAP-IW-HD do not have the problem with the 2018 MacBook Air that would cause the Wi-Fi icon to go gray or for the Wi-Fi to appear as connected but suddenly losing IP connectivity.

May 17, 2019 10:41 AM in response to BDAqua

I purposefully removed all USB devices. Just have power plugged in.


I have a Samsung phone always nearby, as one does. There is a TV and PS4 about 10 feet away. Kitchen items are far enough away. I should note again that my 2015 Macbook is used in the same location without issues.


I'm currently looking at the manpage for networksetup to see if I can use it to detect the issue and reconnect automatically. I'll be back...

May 17, 2019 5:46 PM in response to sirozha

Yes, I thought the ON cmd would help if you find out how to check it.


Well, my Wifi on...


bd1$ ifconfig en1

en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

ether 7c:c3

inet6 fe80::c5c:7928:daaa:8fa2%en1 prefixlen 64 secured scopeid 0x7

inet6 2607:fb90:f21 prefixlen 64 autoconf secured

inet6 2607:fb90 prefixlen 64 autoconf temporary

inet 192. netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.

nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>

media: autoselect

status: active


My wifi Off...

im21:~ bd1$ ifconfig en1

en1: flags=8823<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

ether 7c:c3

nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>

media: autoselect

May 17, 2019 9:32 PM in response to BDAqua

I just had the issue again and ran this at a bash prompt:


networksetup -getairportnetwork en0


This gave me the result "You are not associated with an AirPort network."


Then I reconnected using this command:


networksetup -setairportnetwork en0 MyWifiNetwork


where MyWifiNetwork is my wifi ID. Then I was back in business. Running the first command again gave me:


Current Wi-Fi Network: MyWifiNetwork


So now I'll write a little script that uses the above commands to automatically check every few seconds and reconnect automatically.

May 18, 2019 6:46 PM in response to d--bar

Recapping the steps that gave me relief...

  • Disabled Wake for WiFi Access in Energy Preferences
  • Allow me to be discoverable by : No One in Airdrop
  • Disabling AWDL (see below)


My symptoms were a constantly dropping VPN (every 3 minutes), which can happen because of unstable wireless, and also because of changes to one of the other network interfaces (including a virtual one 'awdl0' that was still being triggered every ~30 minutes). To try this fix, issue the following command in a terminal window to shutdown that virtual network port:

sudo ifconfig awdl0 disable

This command is only sticky until the next time you open the lid; there's an app (below) that keeps the command in effect. Some of my colleagues have seen a fix using just this command without changing the first two settings, so maybe try it first.


More details on all the above, including what you give up by disabling awdl0 (it's not much):

https://medium.com/@mariociabarra/wifriedx-in-depth-look-at-yosemite-wifi-and-awdl-airdrop-41a93eb22e48


2018 MacBook Pro randomly losing WiFi connection

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